


Blessed be the boys time can't capture

by Cal14



Series: Where Do We Go From Here? [1]
Category: Mother of Learning - nobody103
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Gen, Post-Loop, Zorian is barely awake in this one, post chapter 106
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:31:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23415991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cal14/pseuds/Cal14
Summary: Zach wakes up. Zorian is tired.
Relationships: Zach Noveda & Zorian Kazinski
Series: Where Do We Go From Here? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684363
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	Blessed be the boys time can't capture

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [you bring all the colour to my daydreams (you bring all the quiet to my life)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23171101) by [moonbreadroll](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonbreadroll/pseuds/moonbreadroll). 



> Title from The Kids Aren't Alright by Fall Out Boys.
> 
> This fic was already in the works by the time 'you bring all the colour to my daydreams (you bring all the quiet to my life)' was posted, but it was still inspired by it a little. Also, if you hadn't posted it, this one would have taken at least a week longer, so thank you for the motivation boost!

Zach woke up. The first thing he noticed was the wooden roof above him, along with the couch he was laying on. He was more than sure he hadn’t fallen asleep there, and he couldn’t recall entering the room, either.

He vaguely recognized the place as one of the secure rooms he and Zorian had set up in case they needed to hide somewhere. Zach couldn’t picture who might have brought him here, since everyone who knew about this room was either dead or without any memories of it.

Then, his eyes travelled from the wall to the floor, where a lump was hidden below a blanket. The lump moved lightly, as if it was… breathing?

Zach got up from the couch, taking note of how he wasn’t restrained in the least, indicating it was probably not a kidnapping situation, and walked over to it. 

Once near, it became obvious that the person below the blanket was none other than Zorian. Zorian, whom he had seen die with his own two eyes less than a day ago. 

Zach fell on his knees, frantically throwing the blanket aside and searching for injuries as he casted spells to make sure what he was seeing wasn’t an illusion. Not that it meant much, of course. Clearly if Zorian was really alive then the day prior had been an illusion itself. Zach wasn’t sure how the other boy had managed it, since his mind blank had been functioning the whole time, but he was willing to believe Zorian had a way to trick him if it meant he was alive. 

The idea that maybe this was an illusion made by Red Robe to… mess with him in some way occurred to him. If Zorian had really survived, then who was to say Red Robe wasn’t still alive, as well? Zorian had told him that Red Robe’s mind magic skills were ‘crappy’, but they were probably only crappy to Zorian’s standards. For all Zach knew, he might be very well able to place him in a well-crafted illusion of some sort that was hard to detect. He still thought Zorian would be a more likely suspect than Red Robe in that regard, and he was pretty confident that Zorian wouldn’t leave him inside an enemy illusion to fend for himself, but it was still a possibility he couldn’t just disregard. 

Zach bent over the other boy, giving a quick sniff to his hair. Coconut, as usual. Sweat and ash, too, but the underlying coconut was unmistakable. If it was an illusion, it was an abnormally accurate one. Red Robe shouldn’t know the smell of Zorian’s hair in the first place, either.

Zorian frowned in his sleep and batted the hand searching for his pulse away. “Stop touching me, Zach, I’m trying to sleep.”

Zach ignored him. “It was an illusion, right? What happened? What day is it?” he insisted as he held Zorian’s wrist firmly, mentally counting the beats against his fingers. The mental image of his best friend laying unmoving on the floor with a dagger buried in his throat while he helplessly tried to grasp onto the hope that he was only injured instead of dead just wouldn’t leave his mind. 

“Yes, it’s too long to explain, and the summer festival should have ended a few hours ago. You’re safe,” he slurred as he tried to cover himself with the blanket again. He was slightly pouting, and probably annoyed that Zach had woken him up. It hadn’t really been his intention, but Zach had to admit having the other boy (kind of) awake helped calm him down, somewhat. “I’m exhausted, can we talk about this later?” 

Zorian did, honestly, have very dark bags under his eyes. If Zach made the math correctly, the other boy should have kept the illusion up for more than a day in order for the summer festival to be over already. He was also looking very pale. Had he eaten anything in all that time? Zach himself felt fairly hungry. 

Zach held the other boy in his arms and carried him to the couch, stepping around a weird pile of goo that was on the floor. He’d ask Zorian about it later, he decided. Zach summoned two apples, eating one without bothering to wash it first. “Here,” he told Zorian as he gave him the other. 

Zorian finally opened his eyes, which were- shit, bloodshot. He took the apple and gave it a few bites, quickly leaving it aside unfinished. 

Zach sighed in relief as the other boy shifted and closed his eyes again, resting his head on one of his arms. He really was alive, wasn’t he? They both were. Zach would have to take revenge on Zorian for messing with his mind later, but at the moment all he could feel was immense relief. 

He was exhausted, though. Not so much physically, but emotionally. Too many feelings in too little time. 

He looked at the couch, which was barely big enough for one person to lay on, before deciding that if he caused Zorian to feel cramped he could just suck it up. Zach’s revenge had to start somewhere. 

He pushed Zorian to the side as he crawled onto the couch, and let the other boy roll on top of his chest once he was in a comfortable enough position. Zach draped the blanket over both of them, and Zorian seemed to take the change in stride, only shifting again to use Zach’s chest as a pillow. His breathing took only a few seconds to even out.

Zach brought one arm around Zorian under the blanket, and used his other hand to resume his hold on his wrist. As he took a deep breath, he smelled the coconut from Zorian’s hair again. Zach felt his heart calm down a bit, managing to convince himself that Zorian being alive was a reality. He guessed it would take some time to get over what he had seen, but as long as he had Zorian beside him he could ignore it. 

He held Zorian tighter in his arms, hugging him. If the other boy woke up first and tried to sneak away Zach was sure he’d notice, but just in case, it would be better to keep his arms around him. If he was being honest, the thought of waking up and not seeing Zorian scared him. Just a little bit.

Zach exhaled slowly as he felt Zorian’s breath against his skin, his pulse against his fingers and his weight against his chest, and finally let himself close his eyes, falling asleep alongside him.

**Author's Note:**

> please wash your fruit. don't be like Zach.


End file.
